Sapphire have shocked the world with the explosive performance of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 last year. This board still stands uncontested as one of the fastest Radeon based card on the market, and Sapphire have tried to make the fastest, even faster. Sapphire has unveiled their latest graphics board, a limited edition, factory overclocked version of the Radeon HD 4870 X2 with built-in water cooling which has been released within their exclusive Atomic range. Remember, not many graphics card manufacturers include water cooling with their cards. Only BFG, who is specialized in NVIDIA based cards, have come close but not close enough with their GeForce GTX 280 fitted with a water block. - CPU3D

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 Atomic Limited Preview

In fact, Sapphire are the only ones who have just got the bottle to come up with a graphics card that is factory overclocked and features a complete water cooling. We will be taking a look at the Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 board which is currently the fastest factory overclocked Radeon HD 4870 X2 card on the market, featuring an impressive 800MHz core speed for both these RV770 chipsets and 4000MHz effective memory speed. Instead of opting for the typical dual slot fan cooling, the Atomic sports a single slot self contained water cooling solution that also supports the CPU, which is something quite unusual on the market.

The Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 costs around $650, but we must admit that this is one unique graphics card in many respects. Apart from the GPU's water block, Asetek's cooling provides CPU cooling at the same time. The entire water cooling system, graphics card included, is a pre-assembled and closed circuit. The Atomic HD 4870 X2 is a limited edition that comes in packaging you don't see every day, a nice large case with a lot of goodies. The card looks very good, and having the Atomic logo on the board for all to see will certainly boost the gamers ego. Although it will be hidden withing your case most of the time.

Now having said that, we find that for the money, Sapphire could have included a larger radiator, to help cool the fluid even more thus bringing the temperatures down further. Temperatures are much lower than on dual-slot reference card and it runs quiet in 3D mode. However, we were a little disappointed with the high CPU temperatures. On a plus point, the Atomic HD 4870 X2 card takes up only one slot, which is not the case with the reference fan cooled cards. If you are looking for the fastest single slot card around, then look no further than Sapphire Atomic HD 4870 X2 version, as it will probably keep that title for some time.

Now once again, Sapphire showed that it's an innovative company that always manages to surprise us with their unique solution, and the Atomic HD 4870 X2 is no exception. Impressive performance with a price tag to match!